Breaking: Rick Ross hospitalized, kept alive on life support

TMZ reports rapper Rick Ross, 42, has been hospitalized and is breathing off of a machine that has taken control of his heart and his lungs. It is essentially a form of life support, which means that his condition is serious.

UPDATE: Maybach Music artist Fat Trell provided an update from the hospital, writing, "JUS TALKED 2 MY BIG HOMIE… HE GOOD… HE IN DA HOSPITAL BUT HE IS NOT ON “LIFE SUPPORT … HE GOOD."

On Thursday morning at 3:30AM, someone inside Ross' home called 911 and reported the hip-hop artist was in distress, "slobbing at the mouth" and totally unresponsive. An ambulance rushed him to a Miami hospital, where he received respiratory treatment, in possible connection to pneumonia. However, a source close to Ross says that the issue is related to his heart. Reportedly he is breathing from an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO), which oxygenates the blood outside the body and then returns it to the body.

The rapper previously had a health scare in 2011, suffering from a nasty series of seizures, including two within six hours of each other. At the time, Ross weighed 350 pounds, due to his indulgent lifestyle - scarfing down 24-oz. steaks at 4 a.m, and only sleeping three hours a night. At the urging of his doctor, he went on a diet and started exercising, losing an incredible 75 pounds. "I'm happy," Ross told Men's Health in 2016. "I’m still losing weight, and now I’m starting to build hard muscle in places."

In 2017, Ross appeared on Dr. Oz, and discussed his back-t0-back seizures. "I went hard, you know," said Ross. "It didn't seem as bad to me because the majority of the time I would be putting in work. The other time I would be partying, and the rest of the time it kind of blended. And that went on for years and years and years. I just developed those certain patterns."

In 2006, Ross released his first album, Port of Miami, and it went platinum. He went on to become one of the most popular artists in hip-hop, with three more albums going gold (Trilla, Teflon Don and God Forgives, I Don't). On the radio, you couldn't escape monster singles like Hustlin, Push It, B.M.F., Aston Martin Music and Stay Schemin'.

As an artist, Ross is known for his trademark husky voice, famous adlib "BAWSE," catchy anthems, opulent, expensive-sounding production, and epic feud with 50 Cent. He regularly collaborates with other top rappers like Drake, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas, Diddy and 2 Chainz. His label, Maybach Music, has also been pretty successful, signing talented young artists like Meek Mill, Wale and French Montana.

The hip-hop community reached out to wish Rozay well on Twitter:

In 2017, Ross released his ninth studio album, Rather You Than Me, which made several lists as one of the best hip-hop albums of that year. He's currently working his tenth studio album, Port of Miami 2, a sequel to his debut.